We simply cannot return to where we were before COVID-19 struck, with societies unnecessarily vulnerable to crisis. We need to build a better world.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres (2 April 2020)
About the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Trust Fund - #RecoverBetterTogether
Speed, Scale and Solidarity: Join the Global Action
The pandemic moved fast. The response needs to move faster. The United Nations Secretary-General’s COVID-19 Response and Recovery Trust Fund brings the power and speed and reach of the United Nations to countries and people in need. Six weeks after its inception in April, the Fund through its first call released USD 45 million to 47 countries to fight the health and development emergencies caused by the pandemic.
We are facing a global development emergency both in scale and scope unlike any other in recent history. The pandemic threatens to roll back progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, putting the 'world we want' further out of reach. Inequality and poverty are on the rise, and countries of all income levels are scrambling to protect vulnerable people from the health, social and economic shocks the pandemic has caused.
The Fund targets its protection to the poor and the vulnerable and offers innovative solutions that chart a more sustainable, more inclusive future for all. The fund supports the UN framework for the immediate socio-economic response to COVID-19.
Now "more than ever" is the time to invest in multilateralism. If we stand together, we will rise together. We will recover better together.
Interim Call for Proposals - UN COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund
The interim call 2 for proposals was launched on 17th August 2020. Resident Coordinators and UNCTs are invited to develop up to three Concept Notes (one indicated “for funding” and two for “the Pipeline/Catalogue of Solutions”). By leveraging the Covid-19 Socio-Economic Response Plans for agreed priorities and intervention areas and operating with a two stage approach of concept notes and full proposals, this call seeks to keep the transaction costs as low as possible. Under this model, the Fund will only be asking for full proposals for projects selected for funding. At the same time, the Call helps develop a pipeline of highly prioritized, strategic and unfunded projects derived from the Socio-Economic Response Plans, which will be used for subsequent resource mobilization including, when relevant, blended financing approaches.
The fund invites applications from the RCs and UN Country Team through an online platform (restricted access).
Past Key Events
The “Recover Better Together” Action Forum on 26 June 2020 helped catalyze the partnerships and finance the Fund needs to make lasting change. The Fund has helped expand the reach of social safety nets and close the digital divide; and it has built infrastructure, including for water and sanitation, to support both immediate response and longer-term resiliency in countries around the world.
View a short summary of this first round of country investments.
Your donation is administered by the UN Foundation, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization registered in the United States (EIN/tax ID number: 58-2368165). Your donations are fully tax-deductible in the United States to the extent allowable by law.
Project Pictures
Videos
Watch the video messages and stories shared during the Forum on 26 June 2020.
Where we fund
How we fund
FINANCIAL REQUIREMENTS: US$2 BILLION WITH US$1 BILLION IN THE FIRST NINE MONTHS
WINDOW 1: Enable Governments and Communities to suppress the transmission of the virus
- Support countries to fully implement their National Plans for Combating COVID-19, helping them to close critical gaps, for example, pertaining to limiting transmission, the acquisition of essential equipment and supplies, scaling up country preparedness and response operations, and the payment of salaries and incentives to their healthcare and social workforce; and
- Assist non-health ministries and government agencies (such as the ministries of education, agriculture, women’s empowerment, transport, interior, labour, social welfare, and public services), along with local governments, to maintain situation rooms and to provide critical services interrupted by COVID-19.
WINDOW 2: Mitigate the Socioeconomic Impact and safeguard people and their livelihoods
- Enhance social protection mechanisms through immediate impact measures; scale-up cash transfers, insurance, food security, asset creation, and safety nets; and relieve the disproportionate burden of COVID-19 on women and children;
- Meet children’s food and educational needs through school meal programmes and access to learning;
- Promote digital innovations that boost employment, support livelihoods, and improve the provision of social services in line with COVID-19 response measures.
WINDOW 3: Recover Better
- Strengthen and test national preparedness measures, inclusive of: integrated disease surveillance and response and community-based surveillance; maintenance of key services and a health-care workforce during crises; laboratory capacity; public procurement protocols and logistics; clear and targeted communications; cross-border collaboration; and national plans that include dedicated budget lines for funding preparedness;
- Invest in effective and innovative delivery of public services to achieve sustainable and inclusive economies that leave no-one behind and safeguard country SDG programmes from COVID-19-related setbacks.